Jets dropping almost as many bombs as they did at start of campaign

Published: Thursday, December 06, 2001

ANDREW ENGLANDAssociated Press Writer

ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (AP)  Though the target area is growing smaller as the hunt for Osama bin Laden continues, U.S. fighter jets are dropping almost as many bombs on Afghanistan now as they were at the start of the campaign, a battle group commander said Thursday.

Rear Adm. Mark Fitzgerald said that although the strategy has changed as Afghanistan's Taliban militia and bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network have been forced into "narrow areas," the amount of ordnance being unleashed on Afghanistan is within 10 percent of the peak since the military operation was launched Oct. 7. He would not say how many bombs were being dropped.

The United States launched the bombing Oct. 7, accusing the Taliban of harboring bin Laden and al-Qaida, the chief suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Initial targets included Taliban communications and military facilities across the country  but at one point, commanders were saying pilots had nearly exhausted such targets.

Aided by the U.S. bombing campaign, Afghan anti-Taliban forces on the ground were able to wrest control of most of the country from the Taliban, now clinging to their last stronghold in the southern city of Kandahar. Bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders are believed in hiding in mountain caves, possibly in eastern Afghanistan.

U.S. sailors move ordnance on the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2001 in the Arabian Sea.

"There are millions of caves out there," Fitzgerald said. "I don't think it would be humanly possible to take every cave out. ... You have to work on intelligence."

U.S. fighter jets now are carrying out "intense" bombing of Kandahar, as well as pounding mobile targets such as troops, tanks and artillery, Fitzgerald said.

When the bombing campaign started, the pilots knew what their targets were before they took off. Now, Fitzgerald said, pilots take off and are later given targets by U.S. special forces on the ground in Afghanistan, known as forward air controllers.

He said the planes are also focusing more on supporting troops on the ground, including the more than 1,000 U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan and anti-Taliban Afghan forces.

U.S. warplanes on Thursday bombed Kandahar as well as an al-Qaida cave hide-out in the mountainous east. Anti-Taliban Afghan tribesmen, meanwhile, have been closing on Kandahar from the north, south and the east.

The Afghan Islamic Press reported that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar agreed Thursday to hand over control of Kandahar to an opposition commander. There was no independent confirmation of the report by the Pakistan-based news agency, which has close ties to the Taliban.

Wednesday, a stray U.S. bomb that fell north of Kandahar killed three American soldiers and five allied Afghan fighters and injured about 20 U.S. personnel and an undetermined number of Afghans.

U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats and Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornets catapulted off the USS Theodore Roosevelt Thursday as between 60 and 80 daily combat sorties continued to be launched from the carrier.

They are supported by EA-6B Prowler aircraft, which conduct electronic intelligence, as well as E-2C Hawkeyes, which coordinate air space.

The Roosevelt battle group is one of three in the Arabian Sea. The other two are led by carriers USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Carl Vinson.